The thoughts and experiences of a man who enjoys challenging arts, unplanned wanderings and intelligent conversations.

8 April 2013

Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead

That was 79p well spent.

And judging by how well this short ditty is doing in the iTunes charts a lot of other people think so too.

Buying the track was a simple protest that did nobody any harm yet the reaction to it has been extraordinary.

I am allowed to publicly state my opposition to Margaret Thatcher's policies and that is all that buying this single does.

The song is brief and innocuous, the most anybody could object to is the word "witch" and that hardly counts for much these days. I've used far stronger against Cameron on Twitter.

I can understand the faux-anger from the Rabid Right who never let logic get in the way of a good argument, but the BBC's reaction was bonkers.

Playing the song in full without saying why it is in the charts would have caused no offence but to play just an extract (with the "W" word included) told listeners that there was something extraordinary about the song and the news story that filled the gap where the music should have been explained what that was, i.e. many people hated what Thatcher stood for.

As protests go, getting a single in to the charts is much the same as a peaceful rally, the sole aim is to stand up and be counted publicly. To object to this single being in the charts is to object to democratic protest.